FG advances step to address $60bn alternative medicine loss

… Iwu to head committee

The Federal Government has gathered medical experts to streamline the practice of alternative medicine in Nigeria.

This is due to the incessant influx of traditional medicine from other parts of the world, mainly Asia, into the Nigerian market. To this end, the Federal Government has in a rare move taken a determined step in addressing a huge revenue loss of about $60 billion due to poor standardisation.

The experts, under the National Mirror Committee Platform, headed by Maurice Iwu, former INEC chairman and a professor of pharmacognosy, would strengthen, promote, and integrate the African traditional medicine into the nation’s health care systems.

It would also serve as a national body in streamlining efforts of various government agencies in traditional medical research and would come up with a draft defining terms of dosage and the content of each traditional medicine to avoid complications.

“There are already lots of public works on traditional medicine in the country, and our job would be mainly to review them and submit to the director-general, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, for onward transmission to the African Union.

“For instance, in one of our research findings, according to scientific facts, one of the best green teas, that we have discovered is found here in Nigeria and is located in Taraba State. All we need to do for now is to deliver standards for it, especially now there are lean resources from the oil sector, that could push up revenue base for us and promote our health status nationwide,” Iwu said during the inauguration of the National Mirror Committee on African Traditional Medicine in Abuja.

“This meeting is targeted at bringing everyone into one umbrella, which comprises Ministry of Health, Nigeria Medical Association, Raw Material Research Development Council, Laboratory and Medical Sciences of the country, National Agency for Food, Drug, Administration and Control, and teaching hospitals to streamline what we are doing,” he said.

While cautioning people on abuse, Iwu said, “in green tea, if you extract the content and put it into a tablet, it is very harmful to the body system. That is why this National Mirror Platform would serve as a national guide for the traditional medicine to avoid abuse.”

Meanwhile, Joseph Odumodu, director-general, SON, said Nigeria had a vast treasure of herbal medicines with high market potentials but could not export such products, as: most herbal drugs are usually mixtures of many constituents; the active principles in most cases are unknown; selective analytical methods or reference compounds that may not be available commercially as these affects practice and restrict trade.

Represented by Umaru Kawu, director, legal and secretary, SON council, Odumodu said: “The need for standardisation entails the preparation of the product under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), botanical verification, quality considerations, evaluation of safety and efficacy, labelling as well as physical and chemical stability of the products in the containers in which they are to be marketed.”

Available records from the World Health Organisation show traditional medicine is popular, although traditional healers in most parts of Africa are not officially recognised by the governments, leaving them on the sidelines, which can have serous consequences for health care in the continent.